UN delays Kirkuk polls, strategist links conflict to İsrael and US

People attend a protest in the town of Hawija, for calls by Kurds to annex the oil-rich city of Kirkuk to their autonomous region. The United Nations has suggested postponement of provincial elections in Kirkuk for about a year, in order to give Iraq’s parliament enough time to enact a separate law on Kirkuk. A specific law on Kirkuk became necessary after President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, vetoed a version of the election law. The vetoed law would have set ethnic quotas for Kirkuk’s provincial council and suggested the replacement of Kurdish troops there with forces from other parts of Iraq. The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) has also suggested an alternative text for the vetoed Article 24. The UN alternative, seen by Sunday’s Zaman, says that “provincial elections in Kirkuk will be postponed for a period... [read full story]